How do we rectify Flint with Leonardo Da Vinci?

[FaxModem1]

In "Requiem for Methuselah", Kirk, Spock, and McCoy discover Flint, an immortal human who has lived as King Solomon, Alexander the Great, Johannes Brahms, and Leonardo Da Vinci.

What's interesting is that Leonardo is later used as a holodeck program for Kathryn Janeway, as a sort of mentor figure, and she mentions that Kirk supposedly met him once, though she says the evidence is unclear. This version much more closely resembles the historical figure as compared to the immortal Flint.

Given that Flint is rather unlike a lot of these historical characters in things that wouldn't seem to change. For instance, Leonardo Da Vinci is rather famously left handed, while Flint is right, or that Flint's whole drive is to have a female companion, while Leonardo was a suspected homosexual who was acquited on sodomy charges and may have had a love affair with one of his apprentices, Salai. We also know where he's buried.

Does this mean that in the Trekverse, Leonardo was a right handed straight/bisexual man? Or, is Flint a liar? Or is there another explanation?

[Solauren]

There is evidence in that episode that Flint was no longer immortal, no longer being on Earth.

If that's the case, it's possible he was starting to develop mental health problems related to his advanced age.

It's also possible he KNEW these historic figures (aka a Highlander immortal), but having lived so long, identifies and people he knew are starting to "blurr" together.

[Imperial528]

Given how long he lived, he may have simple become so good at behaving like an entirely different person that one could say there no longer was a base personality, merely whichever personality he had created and lived as at the time, Flint being the one observed in TOS.

I know that sounds psychologically dubious, but the man did have four thousand years to get to that level of mental flexibility before the time of da Vinci occurred.

[Batman]

Also he might simply be ambidextrous. Not everybody is left/right handed.

[bilateralrope]

Since I don't remember the episode in question I have to ask: What evidence are we given for Flint being all those historical figures ?

[B5B7]

As I recall there were unknown paintings on the wall and sheets of music that Spock identified as being by Leonardo and Brahms respectively.
As for the other historical figures there was no evidence given and it would be difficult to provide such evidence.

[bilateralrope]

There are numerous ways he could have acquired those over his long lifespan without being those historical figures. So we only have his word that he was the people he claimed to have been.

Add in the inconsistencies FaxModem1 mentions and the simplest way to reconcile everything is to say that he wasn't telling the truth.

[Elheru Aran]

It's not canon, but the Greg Cox books on Khan Noonein Singh and the Eugenics Wars referenced Flint, as did the Immortal Coil novel about Data (don't recall who wrote that one, maybe Cox again?). Basically they match him up with several -other- people in Trek history, and suggest that he's ambidextrous and well used to changing his identity as needed. Immortal Coil is particularly interesting as it went over the history of AI in Trek, from the Exo III android Ruk in TOS to the Wesley Crusher nanites and the M5 computer, among others-- seems Flint is enamored of AI and preserved much of this technology for his own reasons.

Not canon, as I said, but still interesting...

[Eternal_Freedom]

He appears/is mentioned in the non-canon Federation novel as well, where he appears as Micah Brack, who funds Zefram Cochrane's initial warp experiments and then funds a dozen or more extrasolar colonies so humanity isn't snuffed out by WWIII.

Presumably he's old enough to be a very good actor.

[FaxModem1]

He appears/is mentioned in the non-canon Federation novel as well, where he appears as Micah Brack, who funds Zefram Cochrane's initial warp experiments and then funds a dozen or more extrasolar colonies so humanity isn't snuffed out by WWIII.

Presumably he's old enough to be a very good actor.

Enough of a good actor to face prison on sodomy charges?

[Elheru Aran]

He appears/is mentioned in the non-canon Federation novel as well, where he appears as Micah Brack, who funds Zefram Cochrane's initial warp experiments and then funds a dozen or more extrasolar colonies so humanity isn't snuffed out by WWIII.

Presumably he's old enough to be a very good actor.

Enough of a good actor to face prison on sodomy charges?

The sodomy charges IIRC have always been somewhat vague. It could well be they were trumped up. Alternatively, he could just be bisexual, or decided to experiment in the occasional lifespan. Being immortal is something of a game-changer.

[Solauren]

As I recall there were unknown paintings on the wall and sheets of music that Spock identified as being by Leonardo and Brahms respectively.
As for the other historical figures there was no evidence given and it would be difficult to provide such evidence.

I will remind you that Art Forgery is not only possible, but a lucrative business.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

It's not canon, but the Greg Cox books on Khan Noonein Singh and the Eugenics Wars referenced Flint, as did the Immortal Coil novel about Data (don't recall who wrote that one, maybe Cox again?). Basically they match him up with several -other- people in Trek history, and suggest that he's ambidextrous and well used to changing his identity as needed. Immortal Coil is particularly interesting as it went over the history of AI in Trek, from the Exo III android Ruk in TOS to the Wesley Crusher nanites and the M5 computer, among others-- seems Flint is enamored of AI and preserved much of this technology for his own reasons.

Not canon, as I said, but still interesting...

To further develop on this, the novel Watching the Clock portrays the existence of Khan Noonien Singh and all augments as a result of temporal shenanigans by parties involved in the temporal Cold War. The effect in this novel of time travel in Trek, as I understand it, is that time travel can create alternate timelines that diverge at the past moment of interpherence and often reconverge at the future time of departure in messy and unpredictable ways. Alternate timelines can also become completely divergent under certain circumstances, but typically time travel is dangerous because it is more likely to mess with your own timeline.

So Flint may be the Leonardo DaVinci in the Trek timeline, which may be our future, but he is not the Leonardo DaVinci of our past. I assume he is the LDV of Khan's past, though.